PIT BULL STERILIZATIONS A GOOD IDEA

I’ve never bought into the notion that pit bulls are by nature vicious and mean and shouldn’t be kept as pets. I’ve known too many lovable pit bulls, and too many good pet owners who consider them parts of their families, much like any other breed of dog.

And yet I think Riverside County supervisors made the right decision last week when they OK’d the writing of a measure that calls for the mandatory sterilization of all pit bulls, and all pit bull mixes, kept in the unincorporated parts of the county.

The same argument that’s made about guns, you see, can be applied to pit bulls. Guns don’t kill people, people do. Similarly, pit bulls aren’t by nature bad or wicked. But bad or wicked owners can make them that way — and, like guns, pit bulls, with their jaws of steel, can be a lethal weapon.

I keep thinking back to that horrible instance in Valley Center in November 2011, in which two brothers, John and Richard Garritson, were attacked by a pack of dogs while running with two teenage sisters and a pre-teen niece.

The mauling ended when a man came and dragged the dogs away.

The man, who said he was caring for a friend’s pit bulls, was subsequently charged with four misdemeanor criminal charges and the case is pending in court.

This case fascinated me, because I, too, am a dedicated back-country runner, walker and hiker — and the thought of a dog attack is always in the back of my mind.

There was a great article on the Valley Center attack in an October 2012 issue of Runner’s World magazine, and this particular passage really caught my eye: “The pit bull, a cross between the English terrier and assorted English bull dogs, possesses no peculiar violent proclivity toward humans, but reflects in almost mirror fashion the peaceable or violent proclivities of its master.” Deborah Hofler, a veterinarian practicing in Valley Center, told the magazine, “The problem is always the owner, not the dog — unless it’s an un-neutered male.”

Those are chilling words. More often than not, it’s bad owners who make dogs bad — and when the dog in question happens to be a pit bull, watch out. As Beaumont Councilwoman Brenda Knight noted, “They bite like sharks.”

The supervisors also rightfully considered the testimony of Willa Bagwell, executive director for Animal Friends of the Valleys in Wildomar, who said, “The shelters are full of pit bulls that can’t be adopted.” Indeed — according to the Riverside County Department of Animal Services, one in five dogs in county shelters are pits, and about 80 percent of pit bulls that wind up in shelters are euthanized.

The supervisors made the right decision — both for the sake of the dogs themselves and for any future potential victims.